Category Archives: Africa

The bishops of the ecclesiastical province of Ibadan, which is located in southwestern Nigeria, warned against attempts to legalize same-sex marriage.

“We confirm that a family consists of a man, a woman and children,” the bishops said in a statement, as reported by the Fides news agency. “We empathize with people who live with homosexual and gay tendencies and call on society not to discriminate against them.”

“We however firmly reject all attempts to enshrine these tendencies in the Nigerian constitution, and we appeal to every Nigerian to protect the traditional values of marriage and the family as a way of fostering a cohesive society,” they added.

The bishops also lamented the violence afflicting northern Nigeria, rued the reinstitution of capital punishment, and said that the Year of Faith “has witnessed a new zeal and energy and zeal in the laity’s outreach in evangelization.”

A second African president has rebuffed President Barack Obama's promotion of homosexuality in foreign relations during his $100 million tour of the continent.

Obama said he respects “people's personal views and their religious faith, et cetera,” but “when it comes to how the state treats people, how the law treats people,” he believes the equality of homosexuality and the traditional family is“a principle that I think applies universally.”

Deputy President of Kenya William Ruto responded during Sunday Mass that Kenya is committed to the nuclear family as taught by the Scriptures.

“Those who believe in other things, that is their business,” Ruto said at St. Gabriel’s Catholic Church in Maili Kumi. “We believe in God.”

“This nation, the nation of Kenya,” he said, is “sovereign and God-fearing.”

A remote where homosexuality does not exist challenges postmodern western ideas of sex, love, marriage and babies:

"Barry and Bonnie Hewlett had been studying the Aka and Ngandu people of central Africa for many years before they began to specifically study the groups' sexuality. As they reported in the journal African Study Monographs, the married couple of anthropologists from Washington State University "decided to systematically study sexual behavior after several campfire discussions with married middle-aged Aka men who mentioned in passing that they had sex three or four times during the night. At first [they] thought it was just men telling their stories, but we talked to women and they verified the men's assertions."

In turning to a dedicated study of sex practices, the Hewletts formally confirmed that the campfire stories were no mere fish tales. Married Aka and Ngandu men and women consistently reported having sex multiple times in a single night. But in the process of verifying this, the Hewletts also incidentally found that homosexuality and masturbation appeared to be foreign to both groups.

... The finding with regard to homosexuality is perhaps not that surprising. As the Hewletts note, other researchers have documented cultures where homosexuality appears not to exist. If homosexual orientation has a genetic component to it -- and there is increasing evidence that it does, in many cases -- then it would not be surprising that this complex human trait (one that involves non-procreative efforts) would be found in some populations but not others.

... But, the Hewletts suggest, "The bonobo view may apply to Euro-Americans (plural), but from an Aka or Ngandu viewpoint, sex is linked to reproduction and building a family." Where sex is work, sex may just work differently." -- The Atlantic

Some gay activists continue to claim -- including in our comment boxes and Facebook wall -- that FRC supported legislation in Uganda that could have threatened gays with deaths. This claim is false as Dave Weigel reports in the Washington Post:

Family Research Council spokesman J.P. Duffy has issued a statement on the "inaccurate internet reports" -- mine was here -- on the conservative group's stance on a resolution condemning an anti-gay bill in Uganda. FRC, said Duffy, does not support Uganda's bill -- although I don't know who said it did. Instead:

FRC's efforts, at the request of Congressional offices, were limited to seeking changes in the language of proposed drafts of the resolution, in order to make it more factually accurate regarding the content of the Uganda bill, and to remove sweeping and inaccurate assertions that homosexual conduct is internationally recognized as a fundamental human right.

As I noted, the Democrat-authored resolution made several blanket statements about the universal rights of sexual preference. The FRC lobbied to take those out, something completely in line with what its membership would expect.

This story is about the reaction in Nigeria to President Obama's new policy, announced by Secretary Clinton, to take into account the treatment of gay rights in the dispersal of U.S. foreign aid. To be fair, the policy did not explicitly state that laws regarding gay marriage would be incorporated in the directive.

From the perspective of Nigeria it appears gay rights and gay marriage are now synonyms. (It often seems that way from our side of the pond.)

We're posting this as an example of the globalization of the culture wars, not because we support Nigeria's laws:

It took barely twenty-four hours for Nigeria’s House of Representatives to register its answer to the Obama Administration’s pledge to become more vigorous in protecting the human rights of LGBT people abroad. The Associated Press reports that the bill which imposes prison terms for gay unions of all stripes which passed the Nigerian Senate last week has was introduced into the nation’s lower house today.

...President Barack Obama’s actions and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s speech seems to have touched off a particular anger, with one lawmaker vowing to up the ante:

Mohammed vowed lawmakers would proscribe even tougher penalties than those proposed so far. He said “to hell with the super powers if they are for gay marriages.” -- Box Turtle Bulletin